Fool Us Once
by d-a28b
Summary: "This is a villain that tormented her, Speedy." "I know. But this is not your call to make, let her choose." ...When an old villain strikes, will the Titans' leader be willing to put his own team member at risk, again?
1. Prologue

**Disclaim: As far as I know, I don't own the Teen Titans ~.~**

It didn't matter that it was past 3 a.m.

The first buzz of his communicator was enough to stir him awake. With a quick swift of his hand he put his mask on and opened the line, to be greeted with a mirrored image of his mask.

"Speedy?"

"Robin," the stern business-like voice -not to mention the highly impropriate timing of the call- made it clear that this was not a friendly call, "remember the guy, that Raven help the police catch a few months ago? Chemzo?*"

Robin found himself wide awake and fully alert by the mention of that name. How could he forget? It was a simple undercover mission, which could not have gone more wrong. Raven barely made it out alive, and it was all duo to his poor judgment as a leader. A lesson he will never forget, 'never send your team member on an undercover without your team's backup, no matter how smart and powerful the member is, things still can go wrong, and police reinforcement can't be trusted'.

 _-he watched for a distance, as the police walked Chemzo to the police car, his manic eyes meeting Raven's, as he passed by her, "the minute I step out of prison, I'm gonin' to rip your pretty, fucking eyes out, and put them in a jar." He said through his teeth._

Chills ran down Robin's arm, while Raven rolled her eyes and walked away as if nothing has happened. -

"Yes, speedy, I do remember."

"He's striked again." There was a long pause, where Robin tried to focus his thoughts.

Hinting that the Titans West leader was having trouble forming the right questions, Speedy added "I need you to come meet me up."

'Wait... _I_?'

Only then, did it hit Robin, that _Speedy_ was calling him on a Titans business. Something that was usually done between the two teams' leaders. What could have happened that led Bumblebee to let the archer take over? The girl was nothing if not fierce and undaunted, so what made her shy away from calling him?

'He can't be THAT reckless...?'

"Speedy...where are you?" The boy wonder narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his long-time friend. He wouldn't be stupid enough to go after a murderer and a rapist, himself...would he?

"Star city"

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

"Such pretty eyes," was the first thing she heard him say to her. His voice was smooth and endearing. "May I have this dance, ma'am?" He said, with a charming smile.

 _'Charming._ '

That was the first impartial opinion Raven made about the man. Little did she knew, she was staring at the eyes of a sociopath.

" _Catch the drug dealer_ ". An easy enough task for someone with her expanse of powers, right? To the best of her knowledge (and to the best of the police's knowledge, as far as she know), the man was nothing but a gang leader. A big-shot drug dealer who thought the police couldn't take him down.

It was going to take a few tactics. The Titans and the police laid down a few plans. Steps to make him get caught red-handed, with enough evidence to convict him.

This plan was simple, let him buy her a few drinks, 'til he thinks she's drunk enough to take home. In a few minutes, she can have him knocked out cold –without him noticing- by a simple spell, and then she can perform her other spell that takes a few minutes to do. A tracing spell to keep track of him, he won't be able to sense it or trace it, unlike a bug device.

'Just another gun-shooting, drug dealing, _pathetic_ womanizer.' She thought. If Raven would have known what he was capable of, even _she_ would not have put herself in that risk...there was a line between fearless and stupid.

 _\- chocking, screams...were those her screams? That wicked smile as he tightened the rope... -_

Eyes shot open, Raven stared at the darkness of her room, she refused to let her mind wonder back to that day, not tonight. She done that already, plenty of times. It was the only way to get over the fear that haunting her, to face it.

Putting that memory aside, she willed her mind to think about what happened after, she still remembers Robins gaze on her through all the mess of police officers and police cars that filled the place, she sensed his guilt and concern, he blamed himself. For what she thought it was _her_ failure, and no matter how much she wanted to scold at him for thinking in such way, she couldn't bring herself to meet his eye much less utter a word. She was SURE that he'll gaze through her stoic, unmoved act, and see how much she was feeling vulnerable. She had to keep it together, for herself, for him, for the team.

Yet when Chemzo walked by her whispering those words, she didn't have to force herself to put the poker face, no, her body was _actually_ frozen in fear. Gaining her composure in a few seconds, she managed to roll her eyes and marched as far -as her legs could carry her- away from the scene.

His words were something she heard and read a million times in movies and books. Eyes in a jar.

Unoriginal, tedious, dated.

Yet, she had no doubt that he will carry out his spoken vow.

 **It's been 5 years since I even** _ **dared**_ **to try and write something, but sleepless nights, kinda makes you want to start a new project T.T**

 ***made up villian**


	2. Chap1 Going Deep

This was not where he expected to end up in, when Speedy asked him to meet him up. Granted, he didn't really KNOW what to expect.

The corridor was interminably long, with thick brick walls that seemed to be falling apart. He felt uneasy. It reminding him of his many nightmares, where he would be running and he couldn't reach the end. But he could never remember what he was running towards.

Now that a little street light can be seen up ahead, he realized he was not in the better end of the town. Going up a few steps, up ahead, a man looked at him from under a brown hoodie, and Robin knew to follow.

Entering a nearby old building, the man put the keys in the lock and turned it, two ticks, and they were both inside.

"Sorry, precautions." Speedy removed his hood, so that Robin can see the cocky grin.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're enjoying playing this mysterious role." Said Robin, with a friendly smile as he stepped in the small apartment.

Flashing him another grin, Speedy moved to go make them both a cup of coffee.

With a quick scan of his surrounding, the Titans leader took in the small apartment, noting all the scraps of papers, newspapers, and photos. Almost like the mess he made when he worked on the case, of course, his mess what a lot neater. The apartment itself was small, a stool and a kitchenette, and two doors which he would guess were a bedroom and a bathroom. Some cheap looking furniture, with a thick coating of dust over almost everything.

Robin, for the hell of him couldn't figure what Speedy was doing in a place like this.

Sensing his confusion, Speedy decided he'll stir the wheel and start talking first. "When Green Arrow kicked me out, I barely had any cash, so I rented this room for a few months. As you can see there is not many crowds over this part of the city, so every time I come to Star, I just rent the same place. Quiet and familiar."

"It's homey." Taking a coffee mug from speedy and muttered a thank you.

"Raven's sarcasm is starting to rub on you." Speedy snorted. "Speaking of which...how is she doing?" they both moved some papers to find a place to sit across from each other.

Sensing the archer's quiet nervousness, Robin replied quickly "good." Taking a sip, "what are you doing in Star city alone, Speedy?" he said, trying to change the subject as quick as possible.

"Right," snapping back to the current events, Speedy quickly changed to his business mode. "You have heard of the recent missing cases that happened in Star?". Three children were reported missing in the past three weeks, no suspects, no witnesses, and nothing to link those cases together. It had been all over the news, with search parties and police doing all they can to find them.

Robin nodded.

"Well, crime was low at Steel, so boss Bee gave me the o.k. to come help here, see if there is anything I can do."

Again, Robin found himself nodding. After all this was Speedy's home city for a long time, he'll always feel connected to it and obligated to help save.

"I started digging up some stuff, and I think they're related to the kidnappings that happened in Jump."

Now, what happened in Jump raised some serious alarms. Last year, five girls disappeared –and strongly suspected to be kidnapped- within the twelve months period. Again, these cases happened with no witnesses and no obvious link to each other. The girls were from different regions, different race, and seemed to be selected randomly.

One of the girls were found dead in an abandoned cabin just outside of Jump. Autopsy results showed traces of a few drugs. She's been drugged on Propofol and Meperidine, it kept her awake yet in a haze -almost drunk state- for 2 weeks. Her hands and eyes were tied. Also, there were signs of sexual assaults which happened just before she was murdered. Cause of death; overdose.

And that's what almost would have happened to Raven. _Almost.  
_  
Robin frowned, remembering how close he was to losing his best friend, if he wasn't on petrol that night, if Raven didn't try to reach him through their bond...

The excruciating thing was, he and Raven were a hundred percent sure that Chemzo had EVERYTHING to do with those girls disappearing -and most likely murders (when the other bodies _will_ be found), but there was nothing that link it to him. It was not enough that the drugs used on Raven were the same drugs found in the dead girl's system, there were no fingerprints, DNA and a backed-up alibi. Needless to say he had a good lawyer, and very loyal allies. His only charges were kidnapping (of Raven), and drugs possession.

"Speedy, even those 'suspicious' kidnapping weren't linked to each other. Raven and I spent countless days trying to find a link, evidence, anything that can tie them together let alone tie them to Chemzo. How could you tell me you know he has something to do with what's happening here?"

"Well, let's start with the fact that he was released three months ago."

"I know that." Robin said through clenched teeth, the idea of that criminal not being behind bars was infuriating,

"Look, this guy does all he can to not have a link between the victims, and like what happened in jump, the places these kidnappings took places ere clean, no fingerprints of shoe prints, no signs of struggle."

"This doesn't mean anything."

"There is one more thing," Speedy moved around the room, rambling some photos and pulling one out, "the police kept it low on this," dropping the photo on the table in front of Robin, "three of those were found, one from each scene where the kid was last seen."

Robin picked up the photo in front of him, on a grassy background next to an small orange plastic marked '5' the police used, there was a small white ball with a smooth, glossy surface. On the ball was a poorly scribbled circle with a dark blue marker with a black dot in the middle.

An eye.

Robin felt a chill, staring down at the photo, he got a flash back image of Raven's eyes. Undoubtedly a striking feature, blue eyes that almost seems indigo in the right lighting, he only seen four or five people holding those eyes in all of his life. He tried so hard to think of another meaning to this ball, other than his friend's eyes. But what were the odds?

Staring up at Speedy, Robin wondered why he had trouble forming words for what seemed like the tenth time in the space of six hours.

"I think Raven should know." Speedy said the words carefully.

"I don't know, Speedy. I don't want to drag her into this, using her like a bait." His voice was a near whisper while he kept looking at the picture, obviously still in shock.

"Don't you think she has the right to make that decision?"

"No, at least not now. We have to find out what he's up to, why he chose Star city. This guy is always one step ahead, he plans twice and always have backups"

"Rob, I really thing we need Raven on this. Seriously, I know Raven, and I know-"

"No! _Roy_ , you don't know Raven. Just because you got her in bed doesn't mean you know her better or care about her more than her family, more than _me_. I care for her and I'll do what's best to keep her safe."

Speedy kept his head low and forced himself to take a deep breath to swell his anger down. He reminded himself that this was not the time nor place to have this argument with Robin.

"What happened between Raven and I, was mutual." Meeting his stare, daring him to say more.

"You can lie to someone as emotionally inexperienced as Raven, but not to me. You played her."

"I cared for her. If you remember, _she's_ the one who broke it off with me. And yet you still accuse me of being the bad guy."

"For a damn good reason."

After a long pause, Speedy let out a sigh, letting Robin have the last words this time. They can discuss this later.

"Children are involved here, _Dick._ " hoping using his real name would emphasis the point as he did to him. "We know what the guy is capable of, there is no time to sit around and wait 'til he strikes his next move. We are heroes, we put our lives at risk every day. And Raven is one of the best, damn heroes out there, she can handle herself." A quiet desperation could be heard in his voice.

"This is a villain that tormented her, Speedy."

"I know. But this is not your call to make, let her choose." He knew the leader's defenses were breaking "we need her."

"I need her to stay alive."

* * *

 **And...This is where the story keeps getting darker. :S I have no idea where this came from (not something I usually daydream about) but somehow I start writing and I have an almost clear idea of where I want this story to go.**

 **This chapter is a glimpse of the relationships I wanted the characters to have.**

 **I want to know how I can make this better, so criticism is welcome. I can take it :D**


End file.
